Agile

Agile is a way of thinking about how we work. It enables people to solve complex and adaptive problems by collaborating to integrate feedback through rapid iteration. Agile addresses the types of problems many organizations struggle to solve today. It can become the foundation of an organizational culture and a strategic differentiator when fully implemented. The combination of Agile and innovation strategy gives teams quick and consistent high-quality product delivery in rapidly changing environments.

What is Agile?

The ability for a team to experiment in small iterations

A willingness to fail (and learn from it)

Self-organizing teams that minimize bureaucracy to be effective

Visible objectives & transparency

At NewBoCo, we don’t just teach Agile, we’ve built our own organization from the ground up using it. While Agile is most commonly used in software development, we’ve used it as a competitive weapon in hardware, HR, marketing, sales and other non-technical teams.

Fail Fast and Innovate

"I have not failed. I have discovered 10,000 ways that do not work!" - Thomas Edison

Meet Our Team

Nate Adams
Agile Coach, CSM & CSPO

Nate has worked professionally in the IT industry for nearly 20 years developing software and mentoring and leading teams in a wide range of environments from small companies with dozens of employees to large global enterprises. As a full-stack software developer, Nate has written code and developed architecture from the UI through the middleware and to the back-end. Nate brings this range of experiences with him to NewBoCo.

As an Agile enthusiast and coach, Nate has developed and coached Agile teams in many industries using a broad array of practices and methodologies. Nate has taught the Intro to Agile course at the University of Iowa Tippie College of Business as well as several Agile workshops in support of an Agile certificate through Kirkwood Community College. Nate has also given many technical talks for user groups in the Midwest on a broad range of topics.

Nate is especially passionate about helping teams continuously improve how they do work. To this end, Nate acts as an advocate for team members; striving to make their work less stressful by pushing for a sustainable pace and establishing processes and methodologies that emphasize quality.

Mandy Webber
Director of Innovation, CSM & CSPO

Mandy Webber has more than 12 years of experience in marketing, business development, and corporate innovation. She has worked at organizations ranging in size from smaller Chicago construction companies to a large global corporation, Transamerica. As an innovation enthusiast, Mandy enjoys training, facilitating, and injecting passion in all things innovation, employee engagement, customer centricity, and workplace culture.

Mandy joined NewBoCo in March 2017 and has led the launch of a corporate innovation program to support existing organizations develop a culture that fuels innovation by embracing experimentation and rapid iteration. Mandy has many innovation and Agile certifications including: Edward DeBono 6 Thinking Hats, Innovation Games Black Belt, Certified ScrumMaster (CSM), and Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO).

Eric Engelmann
Executive Director, CSM & CSPO

Eric has been an eager adopter of Agile since 2008. First introducing the principles to the software team at his company, Geonetric, he expanded it fully across the company in 2013 – including HR, marketing, and sales teams. This change built upon the self-organizing nature of Agile teams, and eventually resulted in having no traditional management at all. The company’s 80+ employees have developed tools and methods to work both autonomously and together, resulting in a strong culture that drives continued rapid growth, higher net income, very high client satisfaction rates, and strong employee retention.

After leaving Geonetric, Eric founded NewBoCo, with the intent to accelerate world-changing ideas, from Iowa. The nonprofit has built a local practice focused on adopting Agile in Iowa, but also has a strong network of the best Agile thought leaders in the world.

Eric is a Board Member at Scrum Alliance, the largest, most established and influential professional membership and certification organization in the Agile community.